How to Turn a Boring Product Into a Barrel Of Laughs

Selling your product or service is about as interesting as watching paint dry. Ouch. It’s a harsh statement, but it’s true. What do you do about it? You kick your marketing game up a notch. How? Use humor. Humor is underused in marketing – partially because it’s difficult to do well. But if you can pull it off, you absolutely will not want for sales.

A Lesson In Selling Razors

The now famous Dollar Shave Club nailed it when they came out swinging in 2011 with a video ad that quickly went viral. That ad generated 12,000 orders in the first two days alone – crashing the company’s site within the first hour. The company has gone on to amass over 200,000 subscribers.

The secret to the company’s success? The successful implementation of humor. Its viral video makes you laugh – but it also makes you want to buy. You can connect with the CEO, and that’s something that’s rare in the corporate world. Most CEOs never reach out and talk to their market “on their level.”

The video makes you feel like he understands your problems (if you’re a guy). Also, it’s harder to turn someone away when they ask you for money when they’ve just made you laugh about something as uninteresting as shaving.

A Lesson In Selling Fans

If your product just doesn’t lend itself to overt comedy, you can try something a little more subtle. For example, Big Ass Fans is a company that has nailed the subtly of the humor in their product. If you watch any of their commercials, they’ve got a semi-serious tone to them.

The name, however, is pure genius. When you order from them, check out their product line, or even call them on the phone to ask questions about what they offer, they automatically draw you into their lighthearted world. If you can pull that off in your company, selling will be much easier.

The Common Craft Angle

Common Craft is a company that does “how to” and explanatory videos for other companies. They charge premium prices, but practically guarantee that your customers will have a better understanding of your product. This is a great resource if you have a boring, yet complex, product that you want to sell.

However, you don’t have to have a complicated product to benefit from this type of approach to sales. Let’s say you’re a contact lens store. You want to make your product more interesting. You decide to do a cheeky video that explains why your lenses are so cool.

The cartoonish character cutouts go a long way to put your prospects at ease. They also make your product fun and interesting – a difficult feat when you sell something like contacts.

Using Memes

Memes are everywhere, thanks to social media. An image with a clever saying that ties into pop culture can do more than make people laugh. It can make people buy – at least for those that are on the fence. For example, if you periodically send out memes via your twitter, Facebook, and other social networking sites, those memes can draw people back to your landing page where you can deliver your sales pitch. Again, it’s hard to say no to a person who just made you laugh. Take advantage of that.

Guy Asher is a business consultant with a strong background in marketing. His articles mainly appear on business blogs. guy.ascher@hotmail.com